>Thw question is : How do I effectively match color on screen with color on paper?<
the question is 1/3 solved already. your printer comes with color profiles that you should use to start with. they are designed for the majority of inks and paper combinations made by Epson. your calibration requirements are to calibrate your scanner and monitor until you are getting consistent results from an arbitrary scan through to printed output. until then, stick with Epson's color profiles. you need to pick an RGB working profile for your work. this profile is what all your input gets converted into and what you keep files in. sRGB is standard but lowest in color gamut of the common profiles. Adobe RGB is wider in gamut but is commonly perceived as being flat and less contrasty. there are other ones out there, but until you learn the differences between them, pick one. for output to inkjet printers, there are advantages to using sRGB for a while, but it may mean that if you decide you want another one, you may have to convert ones done using sRGB the next time you work on them or to rescan, depending on how important the loss of gamut is to you. you need to know the color profiles of your scanners. 3rd party scanned files should contain their internal color profiles embedded in the TIFF, JPEG, or Photoshop file. you need a copy of that profile on your computer so that color-aware applications (Photoshop) can use it. if your scanning service bureau can't provide you images with embedded profiles, you will have to be prepared to adjust each image you receive to get good color. if you yourself are scanning negatives, the color profile isn't nearly as important as you have to manipulate the scans so much to get good positives. (subtracting the orange mask, inverting, and then contrast enhancement do a lot of things). if you are scanning positives, a good color profile is crucial. you will need to create a color profile for each film/scanner/filter combination you use. setting up your monitor to display colors accurately also requires a color profile generated for your specific monitor, although if you are fussy enough to care, you will buy a monitor with vendor supplied color profiles as a starting point. no generic monitors here, only top notch brands and upper part of their product lines. whether you get a color profile from the vendor or not, you will want to get a color calibration device and software for calibrating the monitor and the scanner. you have to use software that does color management. for all intents and purposes, that means you use PhotoShop, although Corel PhotoPaint is a well known alternative. you have to set up its color management so that it matches what how you want your images to appear when it has to convert color profiles to and from your working profile. when you are ready to, you will need to use your calibrated scanner to scan printouts of special color targets and create your own color profiles for ink/paper combinations that you use. this may mean doing a lot of printouts on expensive paper and possibly with expensive ink. oh, and BTW, if you do more than a small amount of image manipulation, be prepared to have to work in 16-bit/channel mode in Photoshop. this doubles the size of your files and they can't be saved as JPEGs until you are finished all your manipulations and convert back to 8-bit/channel mode. i don't know if your scanner outputs more than 8-bit/channel, but if it doesn't, you should serious consider getting one that does a lot more. Herb...
